Borås Zoo - Savannah

The large main savannah in Borås Zoo, Sweden. Here you can see african elephants, zebras, african buffalos, eland antelopes blesboks and ostriches.
June 2005

Its incredible to see African Elephants out on a savanna with other hoofstock.

I agree with the elephant remark, and have only ever seen such mixing of species in photos.

At Borås Zoo this has been done from the very beginning in the 1960s. So sad that other zoos have not copied the concept.

Also note that they even have african buffalos in the exhibit! How cool is that?!

Is there much change in terrain in this enclosure? I notice that towards the left hand side of the photo the ground shifts upwards, and is there a large pool of some kind? I'm curious as to why there is still grass in the paddock, as with all of those heavy mammals one would think that the exhibit would be all sand and dust by now.

Yes, the terrarin is hilly towards one side of the enclosure as is the terrain in all of Borås Zoo. The terrain is mainly flat with a few hills. There is no pool as such but there is at least one large waterhole.

The reason that there is still grass is quite simply that the enclosure is very big

"Pool or waterhole" - "tomato or tomatoe"... a big chunk of water that the elephants can submerge in, right Toddy?

Well, that's the thing. Since it is a muddy waterhole I am not sure if the elephants can submerge since I would not see the bottom

Oh, I see! As you know, I have not been there for ages but judging from pictures here at ZooChat, I thought it looked just fine. But "muddy waterhole"...

That surprises me.

@Dan: It was not a critique of the enclosure. Perhaps I should have said murky instead of muddy. I believe that the most naturalistic waterhole is a murky one And the savannah in Borås Zoo is, to me, the best one in Sweden (possibly in all of Scandinavia).